Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau

Although German law ceased recognition of the status or styles of noble houses in 1919, historical titles henceforth became their legal surnames.

His father's younger brother, Count Rudolf ("Rudi", born 1932), wed Princess Marie Louise of Prussia (born 1945) in 1971, and succeeded Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg as director of the Marbella Club Hotel, an aristocratic resort.

The new Countess of Schönburg-Glauchau was born Princess Irina, the second child of Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse (b. 1937, Berlin) and his Hungarian wife, Countess Yvonne Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (b. 1944, Budapest).

Irina's grandparents were Prince Christoph of Hesse and his wife Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Elizabeth II.

She is a second cousin of Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse.

The couple have three children:

Though descended from Queen Victoria through her granddaughter Princess Margaret of Prussia, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel, Irina and her children are excluded from succession to the British throne because they are Roman Catholic.

He is the youngest of four children from this marriage, after siblings Maya (b. 1958), Gloria (b. 1960), and Carl-Alban (b. 1966).

During the second half of the 1960s, Alexander's father's profession as a foreign correspondent took the family to Togo.

Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau (born August 15, 1969), known professionally as Alexander von Schönburg, is a German journalist and writer.

He is, after his older brother Carl's abdication, the current head of the comital branch of the princely House of Schönburg.

Alexander was born in 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia, to Joachim, Count von Schönburg-Glauchau, and his first wife, Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár et Felsővidék (b. 1930).

They later moved to Somalia, returning to Germany to live in 1970.

The family thereafter resided in Meckenheim, in the Rhineland.

Their parents divorced in 1986.

Afterwards, Alexander's father married Ursula Zwicker, and their union produced a daughter, Anabel Maya-Felicitas.

Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Alexander's father reclaimed the family's possessions in Saxony which had been taken from them after World War II.

In later years, he was elected to the Bundestag.

Alexander's sisters, Maya and Gloria, famously wed wealthy trend setters: Maya was married to art patron Mick Flick until their divorce in 1993, while Gloria's husband was Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, until his death in 1990.

In 1995, his older brother, Carl-Alban, married a commoner and formally renounced his rights of dynastic succession.

Alexander thereby became the recognized successor to his father's familial headship.

Upon the death of their father in 1998, he became head of the comital branch of the formerly sovereign House of Schönburg.

As a member of the comital branch of the House of Schönburg, Alexander is historically entitled to the style of address Illustrious Highness.

By 1999, Alexander von Schönburg was widely known as a member of one of the so-called popular culture quintuplets, with Christian Kracht, Eckhart Nickel, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre and Joachim Bessing.

He worked as a freelance journalist and was featured in such publications as Esquire, Die Zeit, the Swiss periodical Die Weltwoche, and Vogue.

On April 30, 1999, Alexander married Princess Irina of Hesse (b. 1971, Munich, Bavaria), in a civil ceremony in Berlin.

They were married religiously in Heusenstamm, Hesse on May 29, 1999.

He was editor in chief of lifestyle magazine Park Avenue in 2005.

He has authored several books in German, including the 2005 best seller Die Kunst des stilvollen Verarmens ("The Art of Growing Poor Stylishly"), in which he discussed the lessons of dearth after years of decadence.

Some of his other book titles read in English are "Encyclopedia of Superfluous Things" and "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Kings, But Were Afraid to Ask".

In 2006, he left this position, being replaced by Andreas Petzold.

He continues to write as a columnist and German correspondent for Vanity Fair and the Bild-Zeitung, among others.